We’re very pleased to interview Steven Erikson for the first time since 2012. (Link) As ever, it’s a thoughtful and delightful discussion.
Hello again, Steve. Welcome back to SFFWorld.
This time around we’re talking about SF. Can you tell us how your latest novel, Rejoice, came about?
SE: Writing a First Contact novel has been brewing in the back of my mind for about fifteen years, but I knew that I probably wasn’t ready to tackle it, since I had an inkling that I didn’t want to approach it in the traditional manner of ‘ET shows up, scientists/astronauts/political leaders/the military step forward to speak for all of humanity, the public panics or hangs suspended in a state of fear and anxiety’ type of story. Because, well, it’s been done many times, and often quite brilliantly. Concomitant with this was my personal growing disaffection with authority, the trap that is our power structure politically, economically and by extension, socially and culturally; and I wanted to thread that into whatever First Contact scenario I came up with. Lastly, I knew that when I finally set down to write it, I had better have already behind me as much research as I could possibly amass, and that took time. Lots of time. Once all this was in place, I then had to decide what kind of First Contact story I wanted to tell, how to approach it, how to find those elements of impetus to propel it forward, and that’s when the idea of approaching the entire scenario as a thought-experiment came in. I would set it all up, and then see how it played out. Which is pretty much what I did.
You’ve said in interview here before that you like to kick tropes around in your writing. I felt that Rejoice was you ‘kicking around’ the first-contact trope, in part to see what happened. Would that be right?
SE: I think so. Many First Contact novels frustrated me as much as they entertained me. It seemed that they ended just when things were starting to get interesting, because, with my anthropology background blah blah, what interests me is how humanity would come to grips with the very present reality of not only contact, but also engagement – the synergy produced by the interaction between two cultures (human and alien) – and, in the instance of Rejoice, intervention by a far superior civilization. Earth history recounts such instances of contact and for the pragmatically weaker or numerically more vulnerable culture, the consequences are mostly bad. But that result need not be universal (notwithstanding the [erroneous] presumptions of Star Trek’s Prime Directive), particularly if the technologically superior culture (ET) isn’t interested in planting a flag, stealing land, or enslaving the local population and stripping the area of resources. First Contact novels often implicitly assume that ET will engage in and therefore acknowledge the authority of Earth-bound governments, agencies, nations and so on. That’s a huge assumption, and it was the one trope I wanted to dismantle and subvert from the outset.
Was Rejoice an easy book to write? As a writer now of considerable experience, what surprised you most about writing Rejoice?
SE: Easy? Oh yes, an absolute delight to write. Epic Fantasy is hard. You have to invent not only an entire world with its history, its cultures, its civilizations, but also the universe it’s in, one where, for example, magic works, gods walk the earth, demons wait in the shadows and dragons live in caves (okay, scratch the last example, I mean, why would a flying creature that’s not a bat live in a cave? Makes no sense), and you have to seamlessly slip all that in with a recognizable reality anchored in the mundane. Overlying all of that, you then need to set limits on your use of language, to keep the voice and diction consistent with a non-technological world. In fact, the whole thing’s a right pain. Writing a basically mimetic novel was pure pleasure. As for what surprised me, well, that might have been my sudden willingness to incorporate very real elements of our reality into the story.
You’ve now had published a wide range of material – dark epic Fantasy, lighter comedic sf, and now big serious sf. I know there’s some non-genre stuff in there too, even under another name. How easy do you find it to flit from one genre to another?
SE: So far, not hard, and I value the effort in that it keeps stretching whatever muscle I have as a writer: to suddenly have to sit back and apply a whole new set of rules. Obviously, those rules are dependent upon the massive body of previous work by great authors, and what I learned from reading their books, from which I then steal unashamedly. In a way, it’s the natural process of incorporating what I read into what I write.
I like the fact that Rejoice is a book that respects science fiction as well as tells an entertaining story. There’s lots of nods to science and SF throughout. Was this the reason for making Samantha an SF writer as well as the reason for using a famous science fiction writer as a character?
SE: Who would you want on point in a First Contact? An ex-fighter jock astronaut, a scientist more comfortable behind a pile of books in the corner of the library (or test-tubes in their sealed lab), or how about a politician – you know, someone who lies for a living, makes promises that can’t be kept, misrepresents the truth, hiding the greased palm behind the back as they smile at the camera and kiss babies all the while angling on how to fill up their off-shore bank account? Or, how about someone who’s spent a lifetime thinking about aliens, space and humanity’s place in a heavily populated cosmos? Let’s for the moment imagine a full First Contact fifteen years ago – I’d be right there pushing Iain Banks and Ursula LeGuin to the front of the line, saying to the aliens “Forget those idiotic men in black with their stupid sunglasses, these are the two people I want speaking for me!” As for employing a real person as a character, my initial thought was to include a whole bunch of real people, having them write in their own words, but the logistics of that turned out to be too daunting. Maybe next time.
That’s an intriguing idea.
One of the interesting things I enjoyed is that, unlike much of your other work, Rejoice is in a contemporary setting, social media and all. How did you find it? Did current events affect your writing of the novel? Were you worried that things in your world wasn’t superseded by real events?
SE: Well, I started the novel and had put in place my particular version of US President, about six months before the election; and other political leaders were more or less analogues or invented/imagined composites, and I did have some adjustments to make. The real risk was after the novel was done and waiting to be published, during which all sorts of things could have happened to alter the real-world landscape. Luckily (!) enough, the only real change in things out there is that they got worse.
It’s also clear that you’re a fan of Science Fiction as well as Fantasy. What SF did you read when you were younger? Are there any you’d recommend?
SE: I read SF primarily, to be honest. I rarely read fantasy anymore and haven’t in at least a decade. As for recommendations, oh my, the list would be long. Let’s stay with my most recent faves, shall we? Becky Chambers, Robin Reid and Kim Stanley Robinson.
Continuing about the present, where are we at the moment with sequel/s to Rejoice? The ending is a very interesting cliffhanger!
SE: Isn’t it just! And yes, I have a follow-up in mind, but a lot depends on how Rejoice does, to be honest. I draw a lot of energy from my readers that helps propel me forward, so we’ll see where we go from here.
Thinking longer term, after this series, have you thought about what’s next?
SE: I am under contract for four more fantasy novels and three more fantasy novellas, so my slate is pretty full. That said, I do have a short SF novel in mind that kind of serves as a counterpoint to Rejoice, and of course the Rejoice sequel. I’m sure I can squeeze them in somewhere if the demand is there.
Are there any other genres you want to write in? (“Erikson writes historical bodice-ripper” may be an option…. )
SE: I was thinking of a classic British mystery thing, and would like to introduce here for the first time for all your readers … Inspector Hugh Dunnit and the first novel, I Bet You Don’t Know Hugh Dunnit. I’m expecting Big Things from that.
Lastly, please tell us something I should’ve asked you about…..
SE: No, you got it all.
As ever, Steve, many thanks.
We recently reviewed Steve’s latest novel Rejoice (LINK) and liked it a lot. It is out now.
Thanks to Alex at Orion Books / Gollancz for help organising this one.
